I finished Lolita today. I can understand why it has been considered a classic.
The language is fantastic.
The concept is certainly controversial in this day and age, and I have to look into how it was received back in the days when it came out.
As beautiful as the language was, and as a horrific story it tells it made me yawn and think "same o, same o". Humbert's story is pretty much the same story abusive men have told, still tell and will always tell, except in a better language than most. This time it happens to be pedophilia, but it's really the same sort of self-justification you hear from rapists, men (and women) comitting incest, pedophilacs and generally abusive men. I have come across it enough in real life to just think "blah blah blah" even when the (hopefully) fictional character Humbert goes on!
There was a quote that really caught my attention in chapter 29:
Quote:
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Frigid gentlewomen of the jury! I had thought that months, perhaps years, would elapse before I dared to reveal myself to Dolores Haze; but by six she was wide awake, and by six fifteen we were technically lovers. I am going to tell you something very strange: it was she who seduced me.
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I so wish I hadn't heard words along those very lines (including "frigid gentlewomen") in real life! But I can only too well see this pompous self absorbed man in front of me, justifying himself!